POTTERY MAKING
IN A COUNTRY COTTAGE

From Yorkshire to Suffolk

I wouldn't say that I was a 'dyed in the wool' townie before I came to live in the country, but the way in which I was brought up meant that although surrounded by the country I never actually really came into contact with it.

I was 28 years old when, after having lived in London for several years and then having moved back to Yorkshire, we decided very dramatically to get away from it all: We had one 2 year old , daughter and a large house. The house was all that I had wanted. We thought we were set for life in it.

Having decided to go, we put the house up for sale and took a week off to go to Suffolk and find a house. We intended to use the cash proceeds of the house in Yorkshire (about £7,000) to buy a cottage outright. So strong was our conviction that we never doubted for an instance that we would find something, although we were prepared literally to take anything.

I had an image of being hugged by the country, protected. I wanted to surrender to it, literally to become one with it. I will return to this romantic (?) ideal.

We found a house the second day we looked. Prices we thought -sky-high at the time. We had an expensive survey made and took not a bit of notice of it - we bought it - we reckoned it was waiting for us. A month to six weeks later we moved. Much of our furniture and way of life had to be got. rid of, as much of it literally would not fit into our tiny cottage.

Our neighbours in Yorkshire who thought inevitably that we were mad, helped us pack and gave us a tearful send-off. At three in the morning we arrived. Someone had cut a swathe through 3 feet high grass to our forgotten cottage which lay in a beautiful meadow at the back of a small village.

We had done it - there was no going back now. We had a little money for some essential structural repairs but no job and no skills appropriate to living (and working) in the country. I had taken a law degree and worked as a research journalist. Practically speak-ing I was useless, more than this I was actually very anxious about tackling any job more complicated than putting up a shelf.

My activities with my new shining scythe soon brought knowing smiles from some of the locals. 'That idiot from London'. We had to be from London.

Now four years later the house is in reasonable order and my fear of anything practical or mechanical has retreated at least.

I have worked as a pigman, general farm labourer, builder's labour-er and potter's assistant. Two years ago I started my own pottery with money borrowed from the bank on the security of the house. Most of what I now do in the pottery, I have learned from scratch. I knew literally nothing.

The last two years have been a tremendous worry. We came to the country to be together as a family more than anything (we now have three children - 5, 2, and 4 months). At times though, I think I have seen less of them even though I have been working from home. The sheer struggle of trying to get something going from scratch has been at times, both exhausting and depressing.

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